Tanoaria

Companyjose fangueiro Photography

PhotographerJose Fangueiro

PrizeHonorable Mention

Entry Description

A Tanoaria
The demographic and economic development of the county of Ovar, in a generalized way, was fruit of a strong relation between the man the water and the earth. The need to explore, store and transport the natural resources of the estuary, sea and land, led to the appearance of a group of craftsmen – rope makers, potters, coopers, blacksmiths, etc. - opening the way for the county to become, In an area of industrialization in this region.
The barrel factory (Tanoaria in Portuguese language) was diluted by the several parishes, but Esmoriz, in the middle of the century. XX, was the one that most reflected the development of the activity, with a great concentration of "factories" and men, coming to be considered, in the decade of 60, the greater nucleus of the country.
The cooperatives, most of them family-owned, have been able to produce containers for the whole country, and have been recognized for decades as the best quality.
The coopers were robust men, dressed in shirts and short shorts, which allowed them more mobility. they wore wooden clogs, made by hand, with the remains of the wood. The workshops were quite spacious, with huge wooden yards, greenhouses and warehouses.
In the 1970s, with the worsening of the crisis of the colonial war and the oil shock of 73, part of the industry of cooperativeness resent, causing the closure of several units and the abandonment of part of the workers, starting a process of eminent extinction of this art.
The cooperage industry, rooted in the people of the municipality of Ovar, still retains in its system of work a legacy of centuries: the traditional art of bending wood. Some "fuscas" (workshops) and shipyards still boil alive, with no major functional changes.
This art, besides being quite violent, physically wearing down its craftsmen, is also a source of wisdom, which has been perfected from generation to generation. The training of a master of cooperage requires long years of practice and patience. Young men, who begin their training, are forced to undergo painful physical exertion which sometimes causes them serious health problems. Thus, in the case of an art with few attractions for today's youth, it risks disappearing even in the memory of future generations.